The Panthers have the day off in Atlanta and some members of the team are planning to go to the Braves game tonight. Me: I’m headed to Buckhead for some dinner and live jazz with a friend from back in the day.

Anyhow, me and "on frozen pond" met up with coach/GM Jacques Martin this afternoon and got a few interesting news nuggets. Here we go:

—– After signing University of Maine forward Andrew Sweetland, the Panthers signed another college player — University of Minnesota-Duluth defenseman Jason Garrison — on Tuesday. Martin said Garrison attended the Panthers’ game against Atlanta last Thursday and he met with the player on Friday. Said he was "impressed" with Garrison because of his size (6-2, 220), how he skates and how he moves the puck and makes a good first pass. He seems to be the type of puck-moving defenseman Martin likes.

"You hope those assets will turn out to be good players,” Martin said.

—– Martin announced that goalie Craig Anderson and winger David Booth have accepted invitations to play for the U.S. at the World Championships. Who would have guessed either would make it before the start of the season? They’ve been nice surprises.

Martin said defenseman Magnus Johansson will probably play for Sweden, as will defenseman Jay Bouwmeester for Canada. As of now, Canada hasn’t offered a spot to forward Nathan Horton, who received an invitation last season and declined because he didn’t want to play while he wasn’t under contract at the time. Goalie Tomas Vokoun has received an invitation from the Czech Republic, but hasn’t given them a decision.

“It’s not the playoffs, but it’s kind of similar," Martin said of the World Championships. "They’ll have a chance to play against the top competition in the world."

—– Tomas Vokoun will start Friday at Carolina and Craig Anderson will start the season finale Saturday in Washington. Martin might try different line combinations the final two games just to experiment. Tuesday, he put Brett McLean, Kamil Kreps and Rostislav Olesz together on the power play. Martin said he’ll decide Thursday whether to play defensemen Cory Murphy or Branislav Mezei, who were healthy scratches Tuesday. If Murphy plays against Carolina, Steve Montador would probably move from the blue-line to winger.

—– The Panthers still have to sign two of their draft picks from 2006 — forward Michael Frolik and defenseman Michael Caruso. If they aren’t signed by June 1, they’d go back into the draft, but Martin said there shouldn’t be any concern, that both will definitely be signed before then.

The group of junior players for training camp next season looks good — there’s Frolik, forward Michal Repik, center Shawn Matthias and defenseman Keaton Ellerby. Also forward Mike Duco, a player the Panthers signed during training camp in September.

—– The Panthers need to make decisions on whether to re-sign some of their players in Rochester. Winger Rob Globke’s entry-level contract is up. He probably won’t be re-signed. However, the Panthers haven’t given up on winger Anthony Stewart. Martin said Stewart needs to be re-signed.

Whether he or Sweetland are in Rochester or with the Panthers next season remains to be seen. They’re "late bloomers" who weren’t drafted that could help an organization which gave up three high draft picks for Tomas Vokoun last June.

Comments (6 Comments)

Y’know, I’m actually kind of sad that the season is ending. It just seemed like after the streak, there was a lot of potential for this year to lead to the playoffs.
I think we’re building, so maybe one more year of JM as coach. But, if Jokinen and CoachJM can’t co-exist, then we keep Jokinen.

Speaking about signing Frolik before the June 1 deadline, Martin said, “there shouldn’t be any concern, that both will definitely be signed before then.”
Geez, Jacques, what has taken so long. The kid is right here in North America, playing Jr. hockey in Canada for the past 2 years. Nothing like waiting until the last minute – kind of how this team lost Luongo and now risks losing Bouwmeester.
On another note, I was looking at news around the league and Keenan has essentially admitted that he doesn’t plan to re-sign Huselius, who posted some really nice numbers two years in a row, because he’s not physical enough. Will be interesting to see which teams make a move to sign him.

Ah yes…. nothing like a relaxing day off with tickets to a Braves game after flushing another season down the drain. These guys sure deserve a reward after all their hard-earned failures. This entire franchise from ownership down to the individual players is a pathetic joke. When will we get a REAL hockey team down here that is committed to excellence?

Globke not resigned? Only two college players signed? For a team seriously lacking organizational depth, this team needs to get its own AHL franchise and hang on to every player it has. They need to sign as many college players as possible for the AHL ranks and try to develop them until they have the talent on the farm to dominate the AHL. This franchise doesn’t like to spend money on free agents, so it needs to build through the draft and undrafted college kids. More poor asset management.

Steve – Any truth to the report in the Palm Beach paper about Bob Hartley already having been selected by Cohen as the new coach, and now JM needs to decide if they can co-exist as GM / coach? Also, what are your thoughts on this: if JM elects to leave the organization (which is seeming like a distinct possibility), then does it make it tougher to hire a new GM with a coach already in place (in other words, the GM won’t be able to select his own coach)?

Mark,
so sorry i’m just now responding to your comment. Regarding Hartley, Cohen has been very adamant that he has not spoken to Hartley, or any of his reps or any other coaching candidate — he’s leaving the hiring completely to the GM (now obviously Jacques Martin). Say what you will about Cohen, but he has always been honest with me and I believe him on Hartley.
For his part, Martin says he didn’t speak to any other team about job opportunities before taking the Panthers’ GM post full time. Believe that, too, but I’m guessing he had friends, agents, others in the business put out feelers and realized to take the bird in hand rather than to wait and see what opens up.

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About the author

HARVEY FIALKOV, a tennis-playing sportswriter who grew up in Long Island following the dynastic Islanders, is the new Panthers beat writer for the Sun Sentinel and looking forward to writing about the best professional sports team in Broward County.